One in five female students in the country discontinue their studies due to the onset of menstruation.
Menstrual hygiene has always been a cause for concern in Bangladesh. Studies have shown that 71% of girls in Bangladesh don’t know about menstruation when they first start menstruating. This shows the current status of menstrual hygiene in Bangladesh. About 88% of women are still using cloth, ash and hay etc either totally or in part. This is probably the reason that 75% of women in Bangladesh suffer from menstrual dysfunctions. One of the biggest impact of menstrual dysfunctions is that 1 in 5 girls in Bangladesh drop out from school when they start menstruating.
There are three main reasons why people don't practice menstrual hygiene: they don't know about it, they don't care about it, and they don't have access to it.
• As a result of a lack of knowledge, girls have no prior knowledge of periods prior to their first menstrual period. Furthermore, due to the lack of knowledge, menstruation is not seen as a fundamental health requirement.
• Due to the lack of acceptance, the term menstruation has a negative connotation for women, which is associated with feelings of fear, anxiety, and shame. Because of the lack of acceptance for menstruation, the majority of women want to hide their period, which leads to them not using hygienic hygiene products and skipping school as a method of managing menstruation.
• One of the biggest obstacles to achieving 100% menstrual hygiene coverage is a lack of access to high-quality hygiene products. According to research, the majority of girls do not have regular access to quality menstrual hygiene products.
